Ahmed and Salim (January 20th, 2009–August 23rd, 2011) is an Israeli animated web series on YouTube, created by Tom Trager and Or Paz of Sugarzaza. The series is, as the creators define it, a sitcom about terrorists, focusing on the Muslim family, The Majhayeffs, who live in the fictional Middle Eastern town of Khazbazbazstan, namely the titular characters, Ahmed and Salim, and their father, Yasser.
Ahmed and Salim are two average teenagers who love playing video games, watching TV, and screwing around on the internet, while their father, Yasser, constantly nags them to stop goofing around and commit acts of terrorism, which they reluctantly do. However, on account of their laziness and stupidity, the duo usually messes up their tasks and it usually backfires on Yasser and his terrorist organization, pissing off the latter and causing him to scream to the sky, his episodic catchphrase "AHMED AND SALIM!".
As you can guess, the show is extremely controversial on account of how offensive it can be toward Muslims. Several episodes were taken down from the original upload channel, though reuploads on other accounts are still abundant on YouTube. The UAE actually banned the series from their country and the YouTube moderators have warned the creators that they could ban the series from their platform entirely if new episodes became too offensive ... which, of course, they did, leading to the platform forcing their show into cancellation, with their final episode airing on August 23rd, 2011. Tom Trager and Or Paz have gone on record, though in saying that Ahmed & Salim isn't meant to make fun of Muslims, as a whole. It's only supposed to make fun of Muslim terrorists, specifically.
Despite its heavy censorship and forced cancellation, Ahmed & Salim had still become an online sensation, garnering around 2 million views per video and worldwide fans, some of which are Muslim, themselves and claim that they find the show hilarious and has developed a cult following, in Israel and America, ever since.
Associated Tropes:
- All Just a Dream: Several episodes end this way, as is the writers' most frequent ass-pull of an ending, which helps them get out of killing off their characters or resolving plots that are too complicated for them to solve.
- Animated Shock Comedy: The show is extremely violent and offensive with the show heavily featuring stereotypical Islamic fundamentalists murdering Jewish people, blowing up synagogues, raping children, and having sex with animals.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The characters all speak a gibberish language, which is supposedly supposed to be Arabic, though it's kind of a mixture of total gibberish and several different languages, mostly Arabic and Hebrew, (as the voice actors speak Hebrew). Their dialogue is accompanied by two sets of subtitles (one in Hebrew and one in English) that translates them to actual dialogue.
- Aside from Hebrew and Arabic, their language also includes occasional uses of English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Hebrew, Greek, Russian, Ukrainian, and Gibberish.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: Ahmed is the big guy to Salim's little guy.
- Catchphrase: Yasser's "AHMED AND SALIM!".
- There's also the term "Fidgy Banana", a made-up insult that Ahmed and Salim fling at each other every now and then.
- Comical Translation: Being a show that's entirely spoken in foreign gibberish, the show utilizes this gag a lot. As mentioned before, their language is a mixture of other languages, English included. So, sometimes, the characters will say a word in English, which translates to something funny, according to the subtitles. (For instance: Their word for "Faggot" is "George Michael", their word for "Internet" is "Porno", their word for "Six Million" is "Holocaust", their word for "Nothing" is "Seinfeld", their word for "iPhone" is "Expensive Shit", etc.)
- Evil Plan: Yasser always has an evil plan to commit acts of terrorism in the name of Allah.
- The Faceless: Salim's face is never shown, as he's always wearing his litham.
- Fictional Province: The show is set in the fictional Middle Eastern town of Khazbazbazstan.
- Foreign Culture Fetish: Ahmed and Salim are big fans of Western media, watching American sitcoms, playing video games that are popular in the states, and spending most of their time looking up memes and stupid videos on the internet, like any true American patriot.
- Groin Attack: Yasser has fallen victim to these more times than he'd like to admit.
- In "Episode 4", he was shot in the gonads by Salim, after the latter mistook the former for a Jew.
- In "Episode 6", Salim blended his testicles up in a blender.
- I Am Not My Father: Ahmed and Salim seem to reject their father's idealism of radical Islamism. Though they don't actively combat it, more as they do view terrorism as a chore and blow it off to play video games instead.
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Specifically the Middle Eastern cultures. Ahmed, Salim, and Yasser all come from the same family, yet they all wear completely different Islamic garbs.
- Laugh Track: In typical sitcom parody fashion, the show has this. Over the series, however, the canned laughter was toned down and used less frequently to make it a bit less annoying.
- Likable Villain: Ahmed and Salim are loveable terrorists since they seem to somewhat reject their father's idealism of being evil and would much rather live normal lives, playing video games, watching TV, and wasting time on the internet.
- Middle Eastern Terrorists: All of the characters are this.
- Name and Name: Ahmed and Salim.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Although it's never specified whether they're in middle or high school, Ahmed and Salim fit this trope. Despite being raised in a terrorist family, Ahmed and Salim are just your average joes, who spend their time surfing the net and playing video games.
- Pædo Hunt: Most of the adult characters in this show, namely Yasser, Habub, and Depstik are pedophiles.Yasser: We too are intelligent human beings who deserve proper respect! Okay, I'm gonna go rape a bunch of 10-year-olds.
- Post-9/11 Terrorism Movie: This is the series version of this.
- Running Gag: This show has several.
- At the end of pretty much every episode, Yasser gets mad at Ahmed and Salim and screams out his catchphrase, "Ahmed and Saliiiiiiiim!" at the sky.
- translation gags, where spoken words in their language coincide with funny words in the subtitles.
- Yasser getting mad at his kids for being annoying and taking out his anger on one of his many wives by shooting them dead.
- Sibling Rivalry: Ahmed and Salim constantly bicker and argue, calling each other names like "Fudgepacker", "Wanker" and "Fidgy Banana". You know, like your typical teenage brothers do.
- Skyward Scream: It's a running gag for Yasser to do this when damning the names of Ahmed and Salim.
- Villain Protagonist: The main characters are all Islamic fundamentalists who are guilty of rape, murder, and war crimes against the Jews.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The show obviously takes place in the United Arabic Emirates, though it's never specified which emirate. They live in the fictional town of "Khazbazbazstan", which just might be in a completely fictional emirate, altogether.
- Your Mom: In "Episode 1", Yasser threatened to kill Ahmed and Salim's mom if they didn't do as he commanded ... despite the fact that he already killed their mom.Yasser: I need you to do a very important mission for the organization.Salim: Oh, come on, father. Not now. Gilmore Girls is about to start!Yasser: Shut your mouth, you pussy! [shoots his wife] Now do it or else I'll shoot your mother!Ahmed: But you just shot mom.Yasser: OH, WHAT A BUMMER!!!
